Dough strands form the starting basis for a plurality of pastry products or dough products, such as for example pretzels. In order that the dough product to be formed attains the desired final form, the dough strand has to be shaped in a certain manner, starting from its original straight form, or knotted into a certain form.
The aim is thereby, even with mechanized manufacture of the corresponding dough products, to form the dough in such a manner or to knot or place it into the desired form that the end product complies as well as possible with the existing quality demands, particularly in optical and aesthetic aspects. Among other things problems can however emerge in this context with more complicated knotted forms such as pretzels. For example one observes frequently that, during mechanized tying procedures, the knot of the, as an end product, shaped pretzel is not as firm or tight as would be desired for a pastry product of optimal quality. Only if the knot is sufficiently tight is it possible to prevent that salt solution penetrates into the knot. During the manual knotting the strand or the final pretzel are manually stretched in order to pull the knot tight and to achieve the final form.
The object of the invention is therefore to specify a process or an apparatus that is improved in regard to this problem and permits especially the formation of optimally knotted dough products.